The Conseil d’État has dismissed the appeals of two regional councillors, Mr Wallerand de Saint-Just and Mr Nicolas Bay, against the prefecture orders pronouncing their automatic resignation as part of the enforcement of ineligibility rulings handed down against them by the penal court. It did not refer to the Constitutional Council the matter of a priority preliminary ruling on the constitutionality of the relevant provisions of the French Electoral Code, as consistently interpreted by the Conseil d’État, under which a prefect is required to pronounce the automatic resignation of regional councillors against whom a penal court has handed down an ineligibility ruling with provisional enforcement. Indeed, in a recent ruling of 28 March 2025, the Constitutional Council upheld similar provisions in respect of municipal councillors with the same interpretation as that of the Conseil d’État.
On 31 March 2025, M. Wallerand de Saint-Just, regional councillor of Île-de-France, and Mr Nicolas Bay, regional councillor of Normandy, were sentenced by the judicial court of Paris to three years of ineligibility with provisional enforcement, that is to say with immediate effect. In accordance with the French Electoral Code, the prefect of the Île-de-France region, prefect of Paris, and the prefect of the Normandy region, prefect of Seine-Maritime, had, in two orders of 10 April 2025, declared that the two elected officials had automatically resigned from their respective offices.
In addition, as part of another penal case, Mr Wallerand de Saint-Just had been sentenced in a ruling by the Paris Court of Appeal on 15 March 2023, to two years of ineligibility. The sentence was made final by a ruling of the Court of Cassation on 19 June 2024. As a result, the prefect of the Île-de-France region, prefect of Paris, had, in a new order of 29 April 2025, declared that he had automatically resigned from his office as regional councillor of Île-de-France.
The two elected officials whose automatic resignation had been declared petitioned the Conseil d’État for the annulment of the various prefectorial orders and the submission of a request to the Constitutional Council for a priority preliminary ruling on the constitutionality of the rules of the French Electoral Code that had been applied to them, as interpreted consistently by the jurisprudence of the Conseil d’État, under which a local elected official sentenced to ineligibility with provisional enforcement is required to be dismissed automatically by the prefect. They particularly argued that these provisions do not comply with the principle of equality before the law due to a difference in the treatment of regional councillors and members of parliament, as the Constitutional Council only pronounces the forfeiting of the offices of the latter if they are definitively sentenced to ineligibility.
However, the Constitutional Council had ruled on the difference in treatment between members of parliament and municipal councillors on 28 March 2025. It upheld the legal provisions applicable to municipal councillors in the Conseil d’Etat's interpretation of those provisions, noting that their situation was not the same as those of members of parliament in view of the prerogatives granted to the latter by the French Constitution (participation in the exercise of national sovereignty, voting on laws and controlling government action).
The Conseil d’État noted that the provisions of the French Electoral Code applicable to regional councillors and their situation are similar to the provisions applicable to municipal councillors and their situation. That is why it found that there was no need to refer the matter to the Constitutional Council for a priority preliminary ruling on the constitutionality of the rules applicable to regional councillors.
The Conseil d’État also found that the provisions of the French Electoral Code on ineligibility with provisional enforcement pronounced by the penal court complied with European and international law.
On these grounds, the Conseil d’État dismissed the appeal of Mr Nicolas Bay.
Regarding Mr Wallerand de Saint-Just, the Conseil d’État found that by issuing the second order declaring his automatic resignation following his sentence to ineligibility that had become final, the prefect repealed an earlier order declaring his automatic resignation following his other sentence to ineligibility with provisional enforcement. The Conseil d’État, therefore, dismissed the appeal of Mr Wallerand de Saint-Just relating to the first order of 10 April 2025, and rejected his appeal relating to the second order of 29 April 2025, thus upholding his automatic resignation from the office of regional councillor of Île-de-France.